The Bookseller.com

1st December 2008

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Hosseini and Patterson lead 'global' charge

25.02.08

Khaled Hosseini and James Patterson were the biggest "global" writers in January, according to an analysis of the Nielsen BookScan reported English-speaking charts for the period.

Hosseini achieves what must be a rare feat of having two of his titles appear in the top ten charts of three of the countries--Ireland, South Africa and Australia--and only narrowly fails to repeat the success in the US top 10 by one place, with A Thousand Splendid Suns in 11th position.

Patterson is similarly dominant, with three different books--7th Heaven, 6th Target and Double Cross--in the top ten fiction charts within each territory.

In non-fiction, traditionally a market dominated by local titles, Rhonda Byrne's The Secret bucks the trend by appearing in each of the non-fiction top 10 charts. She is followed by John Grisham, whose non-fiction book The Innocent Man appears in the US and Australian non-fiction lists within the top 10.

With two different editions of Plum Lovin in the top and fourth spots in the US chart, Janet Evanovich, with sales of more than 300,000 copies, was the top selling author in January.

* The monthly international charts will be published in The Bookseller on Friday, 29th February.

International Bestseller News Hosseini and Patterson